Astounding Science Fiction, British Edition — page 38: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

36 ‘“There’s your problem, gentlemen, it’s not the question of Dr. Martin Nagle being a dog in the manger with respect to the few things he has avail- able. It’s a major problem that affects every sincere, responsible scientist of top-drawer caliber in the nation. It affects the scientific welfare of the whole country. I call upon you to give us the solution we need!” There was a small dinner party that night at the hotel with a couple dozen of his closest friends. Keyes was there and Jennings, and Don Wolfe. They invited Dykstra just for the hell of it, but the professor had urgent business elsewhere. Mart kept the talk away from the hearing, and from the general subject of his discoveries. It kept spilling over into their conversation, but he had no intention of letting it be aired at the dinner table. All-they had to say now was for the Committee. Only Jennings broke through with one piece of information pertinent to Mart’s work. He reported that Goodman had ac- quired one of the tavern-size Vol- canoes and was working out a system to beat the game. Testimony was resumed on Tuesday morning. Dykstra was the first to be called. He arose with a clearing of his throat and moved portentously to the front of the room with the faint side- wise waddle that marked his move- ments. He said: ‘‘From that great moment, now lost in the dim shades of history, when the first cave man struck fire from flint to warm and illumine his cavern, there has been a code which the true scientist unwaveringly ob- serves. Unspoken and unwritten, it is nevertheless engraved upon his heart in letters that burn. That code is that knowledge shall be free. It shall be the rightful possession of all mankind. The true scientist would no more think ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION of taking out a patent upon his work than he would think of deliberately falsifying the reports of his observa- tions. Nowhere, in the presence of scientific men, have I heard anything quite so insulting as the reference made yesterday to the revered name of Dr. Einstein. As if he would actually be concerned with the trivialities of royalties from the manufacture of photoelectric cells! Royalties are for tinkerers and garage mechanics. Scien- tists have nothing to do with such!” Cogswell coughed behind his hand. “It would seem, Dr. Dykstra, that scientists must also eat.” “The laborer is worthy of his hire,”’ said Dykstra. “No genuine scientist ever starved or was in want. He must live sparingly, of course, but a Spartan regimen is all the more conducive to the work of the mind at highest efficiency. “No, indeed, senator, the true scientist is not in need of royalties. A man who is worth his salt will auto- matically gain the reputation that will take him where he deserves to go—to the laboratories and to the endowments which are his rightfully, in return for the benefit he bestows so freely upon all mankind. Bestows without thought of the vulgar com- mercialism which we see here being attempted to be thrust upon us.” In the afternoon, Jennings was called. His spare, sticklike frame set- tled awkwardly into the witness chair. An amused tolerance was upon his face. “I would prefer to answer your questions,” he said. “There is no general statement I have to make beyond what has already been said.” Cogswell said, ““What can you tell us, Dr. Jennings, of the allegedly revolutionary principles behind these toys of Dr. Nagle?” “I can tell you nothing, because I CoOMmMicdookssco in